Then east. “For scientific discovery, give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel, give me Amundsen; but when you are in a hopeless situation, when you are seeing no way out, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton”. The challenge…. His black toes would soon be amputated. Yet nothing about it would be sensationalized. Near the end, they encountered a waterfall that was flanked on both sides by impassable sheer ice walls. Sir Ernest Shackleton was a pioneer of Antarctic exploration. Two old men scurried away. The structure itself constrains intellectual collaboration and translation of breakthrough science into clinical studies and then into actual therapies. It is time for collaboration to sprout out of and around the formal medical hierarchies. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@alaskadispatch.com or click here to submit via any web browser. In 1901 he was a member of Scott’s Discovery Expedition, but dreamed of heading up his own.In 1907-09 he made that dream come true: Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition managed to reach the furthest point south to date, only 112 miles from the Pole. Only four times in two weeks did the sky clear to where Worsley could take readings with his sextant, and check the expedition's only remaining functional chronometer. Yours sincerely, E.H. And so all that night, and the next day and night, Shackleton commanded the skipper to hold off. The routine was three men on watch, one at the tiller; while the other three pretended to sleep below. Some glorious, glorious, glorious women. But we need the glorious chaos of global collaborations and a fanatical, fantastical desire to solve the things the human brain can’t yet comprehend. .” Check out an article about Mark during his Harvard stay in the Boston Globe. A rogue wave swamped them. The other 22 men would remain behind under the command of Wild, a scrappy Antarctic veteran, the only member of the expedition who had more Antarctic experience than Shackleton. On May 8 they spotted the high, rugged peaks of South Georgia. The gruff Norwegian station manager sized them up and said, "Well?". For the … They cooked two hot meals per day on a Primus stove, pinning it between their feet so it wouldn't pitch overboard. . They shook hands, boat to boat, dropped their painter, hoisted a sail, and were off. The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. The next thing we'll pray for, we'll pray for some money, some glorious, glorious, glorious money. "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton." Those poor fellows. They'd probably frozen to death like Capt. Kim Heacox is the author of several books, most recently the novel "Jimmy Bluefeather," winner of the 2015 National Outdoor Book Award. Dogs barked. But when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.” –Conrad Combrink. He and his expedition had departed from South Georgia in early December, 1914. "Scott of the Antarctic" chanted thousands of young men who rushed off to war, only to be slaughtered. ", Another crewman remembered a quote from Shackleton's favorite poet, Robert Browning: "Ah, that a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?". "…May God prosper your work and your life. A freshwater barrel turned briny; the men's thirst, Shackleton noted, became "a burning pain." Whilst attempting to cross the Weddell Sea, the Endurance became trapped in ice. I finally found the words in Harvard to explain what I was seeing in my research and my life. Born in 1874, Shackleton was a British Antarctic explorer who set many world records. Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton. Worsley wanted to make landfall; the Boss said no. They'd butchered seals and eaten like starving dogs. And their friends on Elephant Island would almost certainly perish. Sailing around either end of the crescent-shaped island was out of the question, with so many big seas and countess offshore rocks. Another had frostbitten feet. Without it I wouldn’t be back at work, back living a life. No doubt some of the men left stranded in 1916 did pray that Shackleton and his five men would reach salvation – the whaling station at Stromness on the north shore of South Georgia – which of course, they did. “For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton . The Falkland Islands, some 580 nautical miles away, lay almost due north. The seas calmed over a lingering swell. Designed in London, Shackleton down jackets and knitwear are made to perform in the worst conditions. I was part of a group of 65 Young Global Leaders from around the world. We need hierarchy and structure for life’s predictable problems. A run to the island of South Georgia, however, 720 nautical miles (830 statute miles) east-northeast, home to several whaling stations, would put the prevailing westerlies off their stern, with mountainous seas rolling through them and pushing them where they needed to go. Chocks away, chocks away,.....etc etc. He planned to cross the Antarctic but the ship was crushed and sunk by the ice, and after a series of life threatening adventures, including rowing nearly 800 miles in a small boat in huge oceans, he returned with all his men alive in 1916. In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton set off aboard the ship Endurance on an expedition to be the first to cross Antarctica. Then I realised for the first time that my specialist subject is actually a formal academic area of study. From old sled runners and box lids he decked the forecastle end and covered it with watertight canvas. The next day the sun appeared for the first time in a week. “For scientific discovery, give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel, give me Amundsen, but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.” Polar explorer Apsley Cherry-Garrard, 1922. He lives in Gustavus. They drop their guard. It wasn't easy, dodging a rugged coast in gusting winds and a cross-grained sea. For days a storm raged. the strange man in the middle said. The formal medical structure has made standard, that miracle of surviving spinal cord injury and re-integrating into society. ", On April 24, 1916, 100 years ago, six undernourished men pushed off in the Caird, determined to do the impossible. Shackleton was probably tempting fate in 1914 when he set off in his boat, Endurance, on an expedition to cross Antarctica via the South Pole. Ferocious winds battered them with salt spray and sea spume that would freeze topside up to 1-foot-thick, and need to be chipped away. He lived in the shadow of Robert Falcon Scott who had died on the ice, proving it's better to fail flamboyantly than it is to succeed quietly, as Scott's adversary Roald Amundsen had done. What to do? After camping on the ice for nearly five months and drifting north, the men had taken to their three lifeboats and rowed through a harrowing week of dehydration, blisters, boils, icy salt spray, sleeplessness and seasickness. In my case, it is the regeneration or rehabilitation of the damaged spinal cord. Years later, Raymond Priestley, who had served as the geologist on Shackleton's 1907 Antarctic expedition, reflected: "For swift and efficient travel, give me Amundsen; for scientific investigation, give me Scott; but when you are at your wits' end and all else fails, go down on your knees and pray for Shackleton." They can predict with amazing accuracy the physical and mental progression of a young man or woman suddenly paralysed and needing to get out of bed, into a wheelchair and back to living life. Next Jacques Cousteau The boat "appeared to have shrunk in some mysterious way when I reviewed her in the light of our new undertaking. Nearly everybody had forgotten about the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It was a privilege to learn what I learnt at Harvard. He removed the mainmast from another boat and fastened it to the keel, then fashioned a small mizzenmast to complement the jib. Back on shore, the expedition photographer, Australian Frank Hurley, ever alert, ran up the rocky beach and composed an image of his fellow castaways waving farewell. Shackleton's famous account of the Nimrod expedition, which he led to the Antarctic in 1907-09. It took Shackleton four attempts over 100 days (using four different vessels, eventually succeeding with a Chilean tug) to reach Wild and the others on Elephant Island. For speed and efficiency of travel, give me Amundsen. Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Tenzing Norgay conquered Mount Everest in 1953, is another admirer. He had joined Robert Scott’s Discovery Expedition as third lieutenant in 1901. If they succeeded it would be one of the most outrageous feats in maritime history. . and if we have one pound, may we also have ten, may we have the bank of England said the airman, amen. Twenty-eight men pulling together, each made authentic by wild, unrelenting country. It began early, with the Antarctic geologist Sir Raymond Priestley, who wrote: "For scientific leadership, give me Scott; for safe and efficient travel, Amundsen; but when you are in a hopeless situation, when there seems to be no way out, get on your knees and pray for Shackleton.". This is not to say that Shackleton was a soft touch. It is a human crisis and it requires collaboration across geographical, organisational and intellectual boundaries. Shackleton directed crewmen to melt ice from a nearby glacier to fill water casks. Dutch’s conclusion is that in most situations, with predictable problems, a hierarchical command structure is very, very effective. Nine months later the ship was crushed, leaving Shackleton and his crew adrift on a massive ice floe. If they failed, they would be lost at sea, a footnote. These men, if they were men, must be another species. Adventure Athlete, Professional Speaker and Author. But dear God, their appearance: dirty, matted hair; red-rimmed eyes; thin, tired faces blackened by months huddled over stoves cooking seal meat and penguin. The James Caird made good time, moving north early on, to avoid ice. Crean plunged through ice, waist deep into a lake, and shrugged it off. The expedition got within some hundred miles of the Pole, whereupon Shackleton gave the quest up famously claiming, "Better a live donkey than a dead lion. Shackleton’s challenges may not on the surface look much like our own. “Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton” (Shackleton’s contemporary Sir Raymond Priestley in a speech to the British Science Association in 1956.) “For scientific leadership, give me Scott, for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen. Chippy McNeish fixed screws through the soles of their boots, as crampons. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! © 2021 Anchorage Daily News. Shackleton expedition-grade apparel is engineered for extremes, combining world-class high performance fabrics and materials with supreme refinement. He knew the joy of their great accomplishment might blind them to new dangers. I now need to take it and do something with it. But time is a wise and ruthless judge. The 1914-1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition… is widely recognised as one of the all-time greatest feats of exploration and courage.Led by Ernest Shackleton, the ambition was to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. The Boss would take the best of the three boats, the James Caird, a little over 20 feet long, 6 feet at the beam. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. So while three of the six men waited with the Caird in a little cove they called "Peggotty Camp," at the head of King Haakon Bay, Shackleton, Worsley and Crean prepared to walk over the glacier-capped spine of South Georgia, something nobody had ever done. We started with the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, through the 2010 Chilean mining rescue, the BP oil spill in The Gulf of Mexico and we spent an entire morning on the Shackleton expedition of 1914 – 1916. Finally the Boss wrote a letter to Wild asking him to be ever faithful, to watch over the men he'd brought to Antarctica, men who now deserved to get safely home: "I have every confidence in you and always have had," he began. It was his final ambition to be the first to lead an historic expedition across the continent. RSS Entries and RSS Comments. Change ), Blog at WordPress.com. Shackleton ordered all hands to abandon ship and take refuge on the ice. Without my wheelchair, I couldn’t get around. What I have experienced in the aftermath of blindness and paralysis and by racing in the world’s most extreme environments, was what Dutch Leonard was teaching us about. Third lieutenant in charge of holds, stores, provisions and deep sea water analysis Discovery 1901-04 ( Log Out / The formal medical structure is vital. Three mariners now became mountaineers, walking on snow and ice day and night, covering 22 miles in 36 hours. Sir Raymond Priestley, an explorer who accompanied Shackleton on the 1907-1913 Antarctic expedition, said, "For scientific leadership, give me Scott; for swift and efficient travel, Amundsen; but when you are in a hopeless situation, when there seems to be no way out, get on your knees and pray for Shackleton." When they walked into Stromness Whaling Station on the afternoon of May 20, 1916, people stared. The big Norwegian turned away and cried. Through it all Shackleton remained undaunted, undiminished, coiled for the moment, watchful of every condition at sea, in his crew, and in the boat itself, how it handed the weather and waves. Many were solicitous that I might not overeat myself, and my behavior on reaching civilization should be above reproach. It was as if his entire life had been in preparation for this. ... get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton." But now they had to reach the whaling stations on the other side. One crewman had a mild heart attack. Incomparable in adversity, he was the miracle worker who would save your life against all the odds and long after your number was up. Too risky. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The 10 days were a mind-blowing experience, with the pinnacle for me being Dutch Leonard’s classes on “Leading Through Crisis”. “For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.” Sir Raymond Priestly, Antarctic Explorer and Geologist. But the amazing success of the formal medical structure is also its failing. For the first two weeks in April, I sat in a classroom in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. All rights reserved. ", but it established Shackleton as a "bona fide English hero" (Books on Ice). ( Log Out / If they shot past South Georgia in heavy seas, they'd have slim chance of coming about, their boat being so small and light of canvas. When he set sail on the Endurance, it was Shackleton’s third trip to Antarctica. "We watched them until they were out of sight," wrote one crewman, "which was not long, for such a tiny boat was soon lost to sight on the great heaving ocean; as she dipped into the trough of each wave, she disappeared completely, sail and all. Ernest H. Shackleton - Expedition Leader (40) "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton." Born in Kilkea, County Kildare, Ireland, Shackleton, and his family moved to Sydenham in suburban south London when he was ten. Nobody had ever before walked into a whaling station from the icy interior of the island. Otherwise it was dead reckoning – guesswork, given the rough conditions. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com. ( Log Out / Leading through a crisis, any crisis – man-made or natural disaster, requires decisions to be made in a world of imperfect knowledge and uncertain results. Ernest Shackleton was born in Kilkea, Ireland in 1874. A run for either would put heavy weather on the beam of a small boat that was only modestly seaworthy. You can convey my love to my people and say I tried my best. It often fails. ‘When disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.’ Due to popular demand, Stolen Elephant Theatre are bringing their Sold Out Ed Fringe play ‘Shackleton and his Stowaway’ back to London. Robert Falcon Scott only four years before in 1912. Sir Ernest Shackleton 100 Website marking the centenary of Sir Ernest Shackleton and the expedition on the Endurance to Antarctica, featuring Shackleton videos, Shackleton photos, Shackleton stories and interactive content For decades, Shackleton was called a "splendid failure." When asked about Shackleton, Hillary leaned on a quote often attributed to another Antarctic explorer, Sir Raymond Priestly: “For scientific discovery give me Scott; for speed and efficiency of travel give me Amundsen; but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.” This is the story of the greatest explorer of all time, Ernest Henry Shackleton. Finding a cure for spinal cord injury is not a predictable problem. Shackleton. His men called him "the Boss," and believed he could do anything. Winds gusted to 120 knots. This would be his third and last exploration of the Antarctic during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration around the time of World War I. Ernest Shackleton’s First South Pole Expeditions. [Attributed to Raymond Priestly but appears in essence elsewhere including in Cherry-Garrard's Worst Journey in the World (see previous)]. 'Pray for Shackleton' All the men of the Endurance came safely home. This work is nothing short of a miracle. And now this. No doubt dispirited as well, having arrived at the South Pole only to find the crafty Norwegian Roald Amundsen, the better skier, dog handler, and let's be honest, the better leader, had beaten them there by five weeks, and claimed one the world's last great geographical prizes. It requires the strengths we saw in Shackleton’s crew – the ability to try something, fail and immediately try something else. The next thing we'll pray for, we'll pray for some women. Shackleton’s expedition failed — and yet the story of how his men survived on the ice for 497 days transformed the Endurance into one of the most memorable accounts of perseverance and resilience in history. 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